Many Ethernet networks use standard data rates such as 1 Gb/sec and 10 Gb/sec. With the introduction of new higher data rates, often the recommended media required to operate at higher data rates can change. For example, a link that is installed and can operate at 1 Gb/sec uses a category 5e (Cat5e) cable. However, the next higher IEEE data rate of 10 Gb/sec requires category 6a (Cat6a) cabling. For some applications such as enterprise wireless access points (EWAP), it may not be practical to replace the cables. For instance, when such EWAP units need to operate at data rates above 1 Gb/sec, but below the next Standard Ethernet rate of 10 Gb/sec. Therefore, it is desirable to upgrade all existing 1 Gb/sec links for some faster data rate without upgrading the cable. For such applications, a higher data rate such as 2.5 Gb/sec can be run on the existing Cat5e cable using a non-IEEE standard version of the higher speed 10 Gb/sec standard (e.g., 10GBASE-T).